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London Fashion Week AW12: a digital review

It’s been one of the most interesting seasons from a digital perspective. Not because all of a sudden fashion brands have ‘caught on’, but because integration with online has matured. It’s more valuable, comprehensive and better thought out.

As such, we've compiled some of the best digitally-enhanced offerings from fashion magazines, designers and the organiser itself.

Bourjois

During London Fashion Week (LFW) the make-up brand has been running a location-based street game in Shoreditch called 'Find the Bourjois Belle', in which consumers win prizes for taking part.

This crossed over onto the brand's Facebook page, and Bourjois partnered with fashion bloggers ahead of the launch to drum up interest. Sadly it seems that 'Belle's' channel is now private, so we can't show you any of the clips.

The brand also created a pop-up shop to support the campaign, called Bourjois Boutique, and partnered with Channel 4 to produce a series of shows fronted by T4 presenter Jameela Jamil.

British Fashion Council

The British Fashion Council’s (BFC) livestream of 46 catwalk shows from LFW resulted in a 100% increase in viewers year on year, indicating the growing demand from an online audience for real time fashion events.

Powered by Rightster, the shows were accessible via the BFC’s YouTube channel, the LFW TV site, as well as delivered to designer and publisher Facebook communities for the first time - including the Roksanda Ilincic and Vogue pages. It was also delivered to over 100 publishers and appeared on tablets for the first time via the Times’ iPad app.

Consumers could watch both online or, if in town, on the outdoor LED screens at LFW headquarters at Somerset House.

The BFC also created a presence for the event on the London Underground. It broadcasted content onto CBS Outdoor's 60 cross-track projection screens, including news, images, videos and updates from the @londonfashionwk Twitter account.

Throughout the week, the Twitter feed also hosted live chats with designers Anya Hindmarch and Alice Temperley, as well as GQ editor Dylan Jones, using the #AskLFW hashtag.

The content above was also made available on BFC’s app, first launched for the SS11 collections. This also provided access to additional backstage and ‘VIP’ video content simply by scanning either the LFW logo or the cover of the LFW daily newspaper.

Burberry

Burbery’s Prorsum AW12 Womenswear show was streamed live from LFW’s Hyde Park show space this Monday.

Via Burberry.com, people could watch the event, while motion reactive technology allowed them to view each look in 360 degrees.

The brand says this enhanced the ‘Runway to Reality’ experience it created on Burberry World, which allowed people to purchase the collection exclusively from the runway for one week, with delivery in under 2 months.

Animated GIFS were shared via Twitter (and as images on Instagram) before the models hit the runway, allowing followers to view the collection moments before anyone else.

#Burberry trended globally (for the second season in a row with its womenswear show) and Burberry has a combined following of over 860,000 on Twitter, making it the most followed luxury brand on Twitter.

The show was also streamed live to digital screens across London, including Cromwell Road, Liverpool Street Station and Heathrow Terminal 5.

Dazed & Confused

The Wall Street Journal might be covering New York’s Fashion Week on Pinterest, but over here, Dazed & Confused has been posting images and videos of its favourite trends from the week – also doing the same on Instagram.

Grazia

Grazia magazine’s editors were followed around by cameras 24/7 during LFW, with the footage being compiled into a series of short shows called Grazia’s Fashion Issue… Live!

Editors also invited readers to get involved, calling for them to send in their comments and vote on what makes it into the printed publication, including the cover shot.

The issue came out on Tuesday of this week, accompanied by a longer, half an hour episode full of footage.

Harrods

Mirroring Bergdorf Goodman’s campaign last season, in which the US retailer gave online fans the opportunity to decide which items it stocked, Harrods has posted every look from the Burberry show onto its Facebook page.

The images that get the most ‘likes’ will be the ones selected for purchase, in a test to see whether Facebook can help brands determine a collection’s bestseller items.

Selfridges

Selfridges has created a new women’s section instore, including eight new boutiques and a floor of newer, cutting-edge designers.

Launched to coincide with LFW, the space includes a 'next-generation' fitting room. When a customer stands in between three specially-placed mirrors, they can capture an image or short video of themselves - and try on different outfits without removing their clothes.

These images could then be viewed immediately, and shared with friends via social networks.

The area is now being used to showcase a ‘Fantasy Experience’ to mark Selfridges’ debut of luxury lingerie collection Triumph Essence.

Topshop

High street retailer Topshop updated its iPhone app to make a livestream of its catwalk shows from the Topshop Show Space accessible to users over the course of LFW.

It also integrated a QR scanner into the app to help shoppers unlock content while instore or when reading the Topshop newspaper that was produced during LFW.

The app was originally released in December 2010 and saw 280,000 downloads within the first four weeks of its launch.

It additionally allows users to shop the brand’s womenswear collection, view a ‘new in’ section that updated every morning, and locate stores.

Vodafone

In November last year, Vodafone revealed its place as a headline sponsor of the fashion event, after signing a seven-season-deal to make London Fashion Week 'more accessible to consumers'.

Comments (1)

Tom Salmon, Marketing Director at Epiphany

Fascinating to see how fashion brands are using a blend of traditional, digital and social platforms this LFW. We've just compiled an in depth report on the organic and paid search visibility of 50 leading fashion brands which shows, amongst other things, how brands are using social as a catalyst for link acquisition.

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